Recruiting hype doesn’t always match results

Recruiting analysts are a lot like weather men.


No matter how many times they are wrong, we keep coming back to them.


Admittedly, I don't like analyzing recruits. It creates a sense of false hope going into the off-season. I've come to form this belief because of Nebraska's fabled 2005 class. Remember that one? It was the can't miss class of the year, even renowned recruiting analyst Tom Lemming agreed. He said as much on signing day in 2005.


"A year from now, everyone will be talking about this Nebraska class as their greatest in the last 25 years," Lemming told The Associated Press.


It is now 2009. Since that class, Nebraska is 31-20, hasn't won the Big 12 Conference, missed another bowl game and saw a messy turnover in both the coaching ranks and at athletic director. Now, people will be talking about this class as the most disappointing class in the last 25 years.


At the time, Lemming couldn't have been further from the truth and I couldn't have been more excited.

Going back to the winter of 2005, Nebraska was coming off a 5-7 season. Generations of adults had never seen so many losses in one season.

I was a junior in high school during the 2004 season, and the only thing remotely exciting about that year was following the recruiting news.

The big names were committing left and right. Harrison Beck committed in the summer. The quarterback from Florida was such a big coup that a TV station even gave him a blog to talk about his commitment to Nebraska.


From his blog: "This recruiting class will represent the future of what is to come, in the new era of Nebraska football. A team with togetherness, and a burning desire to be successful, is a team that blows away the competition! At Nebraska you see togetherness and a TEAM."


Beck never became part of that "TEAM." For whatever reason – playing time, being homesick, or maybe he just never fit in – Beck packed his bags and headed back closer to home when he transferred to North Carolina State shortly before the start of his sophomore season.


Maybe it was the weight of Husker nation.

It would be easy to pick on Beck, but he wasn't the only highly touted member of that class. No, you see Beck was just one part of the class that was going to rewrite recruiting history at Nebraska. As Beck was leaving, another big name decided to stick out a tumultuous career as a Husker.


Marlon Lucky was a five-star running back that Lemming considered the best all-around running back in the class. Nebraskans became enamored with the idea that he could be the next Adrian Peterson – Oklahoma's stud running back that took the country by storm.


In his senior season, the North Hollywood star ran for 2,036 yards and 40 touchdowns. In his career at Nebraska, Lucky ran for 2,393 yards and 22 touchdowns. Nothing to be ashamed about, but not the Heisman nominations, game changing runs and big play potential everyone had dreamed of when he signed his letter of intent.


Now he's preparing for the NFL and having to give statements that he's glad that he came back for his senior year at Nebraska.


Previously, I never felt that Lucky was worth the hype. He never lived up to the high expectations of Husker fans, but recently I can't help but wonder what he could have done to back up the hype.

At Nebraska we've created a recruiting monster.

Nebraskans see a five-star by a recruits name and expect the next Ahman Green or Tommie Frazier. They see a two-star by Joe Ganz, and expect mop-up duty.

As you read the names that are signing with Nebraska today, try to imagine them as normal 18-year-olds picking a school that will shape them for the next four to five years of their lives. Some will succeed beyond their wildest dreams, and others will inevitably fail.

It's a fact of life, regardless of how many stars you have.


Michael Schaefer is a junior News-editorial major. Reach him at michaelschaefer@dailynebraskan.com